Oldest home in Pass-A-Grille moved down the street

Pass-A-Grille, Florida - The oldest home in Pass-A-Grille now has a new address. In order to save it, the owner had to move it and it was quite a slow process to preserve a piece of history.

The Zephania Phillips' Homestead can now be found one block down the road, but that small trip was one big feat. It's not the traffic you'd expect to run into driving down Pass-A-Grille Street and that's drawn quite a crowd.

"It's pretty interesting. I haven't seen anything like this in the last 50 years, I seen a house move a long time ago, but not this close," says onlookerJim Rinke.

The oldest home in Pass-A-Grille was hoisted up and hauled down the street.

"I'm amazed they can get it over here. I just don't know how they could do it," says Peggy McElroy, who lives next door to where the house used to sit.

It took aboutthree hours to get the 75-ton home around the block, all in an effort to keep it standing.

"We were told there was a possibility it would be torn down, so we decided we had a lot available we could use and took the opportunity to save it," says Carl Hollenback, the owner of the home.

The Florida Historic marker says Zephaniah Phillips, a Union Army veteran, chose the site when homesteaded here in 1886.

It will now spend its days in the lot next to the 75-year-old Sea Horse Restaurant.

It was in the process of demolition when Hollenback decided to take over.

"The bathrooms have been taken out, the kitchen is taken out, there is damage to the ceilings, because of the tornado that came through the area," says Hollenback.

Despite all that, the new location means a new life for this historic home. Hollenback hopes to have it ready to rent out in aboutsix months.